Dunk 40, Generation 51

I’m no snitch, but before this game even started, there was some funny business going on. While the NRF rules clearly state that you cannot play without full uniform – jersey, shorts and shoes – when you glanced on the court during the game, Dan Solomito had on no jersey and Rafael DaSilva had on a pair of last year’s shorts. The fact that these guys are their team’s best players might have had something to do with that, but rules are rules. (Note: While Solomito wasn’t wearing his jersey during the game, apparently he loaned his to teammate Bang Takenouchi who had forgotten his.)

But wardrobe aside, these teams came ready to play ball. Well, at least Dunk did to start the game. After five minutes had gone by, a triple from Bobbito Garcia made it 9-1 in Dunk’s favor, prompting an immediate timeout from the Generation bench. Dribbling around like members of the Harlem Globetrotters, Garcia, Takenouchi and Solomito seemed more interested in making the crazy pass than the simple pass in the early going.

Then Generation woke up. After the score got pushed to 11-2 at the 11:46 mark, Generation decided it was time to play, going on a run capped by a DaSilva turnaround from the baseline to make it 13-9 in favor of Dunk with eight minutes left on the clock. I’m not going to lie – it was ugly. DaSilva then proceeded to miss two in a row, and Solomito looked like he ate quicksand for lunch. The only thing going right was the [Steve] Halo Effect, which when enacted, caused J.J. McGowan to turn the ball over out-of-bounds and drop a bucket on the other end.

But by halftime, Dunk was able to go into the break with a 22-16 lead after a Garcia bomb at the buzzer. [Side note: Generation needs to play Ricardo Viramontes. Even though, as Ben Detrick notes, “he looks like an Afghan Freedom Fighter.” And by that I mean, someone who fights to liberate blankets that your grandmother knits.]

The second half was a different story. Joe Branch came out firing with some beauty on the block, while the rest of his team finally realized they were playing the 7 o’clock game. Before you knew it, the score was 27-24 in Generation’s favor after a run was capped by a DaSilva steal and bucket at the 15-minute mark.

Then the worst possible thing happened for Dunk: their starting point guard, Takenouchi, went down. With him sitting on the sidelines, Dunk’s ball movement quickly disappeared. McGowan hit a three, while DaSilva finally started to heat up on the offensive and defensive end, pushing the lead to 38-32 with eight minutes to play. At that point, Dunk might has well thrown in the towel.

Despite a tremendous block by Will DuBose on DaSilva, and a spectacular swat by Solomito on Branch, without Takenouchi on the floor, Dunk was is disarray.

Final score: Generation wins, 48-40.

	1	2		T
Dunk	22	18	-	40
Generation	16	32	-	51

Box Scores

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